Ski and Bike

PARIS | After the champagne bubbles fade and Chris Froome drifts away from his Sunday night celebrations to reflect on a fourth Tour de France win, he may do so with greater fondness than the others. The first, in 2013, brought the bursting pride of a first success. But he won by more than four minutes, as he did last year. Although Nairo Quintana finished a little over one minute behind him in 2015, this year’s victory — by just 54 seconds — over another Colombian, Rigoberto Uran, tastes sweeter.

ROMANS-SUR-ISERE, France | Ahead of two grueling Alpine stages likely to decide the outcome of the 104th Tour de France, Chris Froome and his teammates have sent a clear message to their rivals with another impressive display of collective strength. Amid heavy crosswinds that played havoc in the finale of Tuesday’s 165-kilometer (102.5-mile) Stage 16 between Le Puy-en-Velay to Romans-en-Isere, Team Sky riders tried to unsettle their opponents by setting a frenetic tempo that split the pack like a jigsaw puzzle.

LE PUY-EN-VELAY, France | The battle for victory will go down to the wire at the Tour de France. With just six stages left before the three-week race reaches the Champs-Elysees, only 29 seconds separate the top four riders in the general classification.

CHAMBERY, France | Chris Froome probably hoped he had a bigger lead than his 18-second advantage over Fabio Aru on the Tour de France’s first rest day. At least he’s still in one piece, though. Richie Porte, Froome’s most feared opponent, and Geraint Thomas, Froome’s most loyal support rider at Team Sky, both crashed out […]

DUESSELDORF, Germany | The Tour de France calls its start the “Grand Depart.” This year it feels more like the “Grand Return.” Six years after German TV stopped broadcasting cycling’s showpiece event because of a series of doping scandals and three decades after it last rolled off in the country, the Tour opens this weekend with two stages in Duesseldorf.

With 21 stages, 23 tough climbs in five mountain ranges, three mountain-top finishes and two time trials, the route for the Tour de France, which begins Saturday in Duesseldorf, Germany, promises to challenge the wide variety of skill sets in the professional cycling peloton.

A common spectator complaint in prior races was that the action in front of them didn’t last very long. But this race will have more laps and sprints in downtown streets for spectators to get their cycling fix

The Olympic slalom champion has a 178-point lead over Ilka Stuhec of Slovenia with six races remaining — all on U.S. slopes. There are two events this week at Squaw Valley in California, before the season concludes next week with the World Cup Finals in Aspen, Colorado.